The Sunshine Blogger Award!

Last week I was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! A heartfelt thanks to Jessi at The Rambling Raccoon for the nomination… You have to check her out, she’s full of personality and it shows in her posts. She runs a Lifestyle/Travel/Hiking blog and she has a ton of great pictures as well! I’m honoured she thought of me, it was a great pick-me-up, since I haven’t had much time to write and was feeling a bit down about the slow progress of my site.

What IS The Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is a recognition for bloggers, given by blogging peers to fellow bloggers who inspire positivity and bring creative content (sunshine!) to the blogging world. It’s an honour to be recognized, it truly makes you feel inspired to keep on keeping on!

So, let’s get the technical stuff (rules) out of the way, then on to the good stuff (answering questions and my own nominations)!

Rules for the Sunshine Blogger Award:

If nominated and you choose to accept (insert Mission Impossible music)

Thank the blogger who nominated you for the Sunshine Award and link back to their blog
Answer the 11 questions set by the person who nominated you
Nominate up to 11 other blogs and give them 11 new questions to answer
Notify your nominees through social media or commenting on their blog
List the “rules” and display a Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post.

Sunshine Blogger Award

Ok, here’s the good stuff!

These are my answers to the 11 questions The Rambling Raccoon set out for me:

Where did you go on your first trip out of the country?

Cuba! It was 1997, I was in my mid-20s, and had never been on a plane before. I took a travel and tourism course and this was the required travel part of the program.

What inspired you to start blogging?

I created a website a couple years prior to leaving my almost 20 year career as a travel agent, but I didn’t do much with it. It was intended to be an information site about the places I travelled to, but working full time didn’t leave much time for it. When I left the agency, I had more time, and started to work more on it.I never planned to blog on my site, but when I started reading other travel blogs I decided to add a blog to my menu and make it a combo website/blog.

What has been your biggest struggles when it comes to blogging?

For me, time, but also figuring out HOW to write a blog. It’s ongoing as I’m still figuring out what works and what doesn’t, still unsure of my voice and trying to not sound like a travel brochure (I mean seriously, I was a walking travel brochure for almost 20 years!). Also, the technical stuff. I knew NOTHING, and taught myself everything. Lots of googling, you-tubing, reading articles etc. and there are still so many things to learn, and things I don’t know. I’m still googling!

Where are you located? (home-base)

I live in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Living the East Coast lifestyle : )

If you could go anywhere in the world to visit, where would you go?

Hmmm. I would go to Europe. I’d take river cruises all around Europe. Then perhaps Australia, though I’m not fond of poisonous things. Definitely Scotland. And…

How did you come up with your blog name?
My Sunshine Blogger Award

Whew! THAT was a process…I started brainstorming in January ‘16, and had it figured out by May. I wanted it to say Travel. Since I was talking about travel, Travel Talk made sense. I added Café just because… envision sitting at a café in Paris or the local coffee shop down the road, chatting with a friend about your latest vacation… or sipping a latte while reading the travel section in the paper. Tada, Travel Talk Café was born. A place you can stop in and ‘talk travel’.

What’s your favorite thing to do in your spare time?

Spare time? Is that a thing? I like watching HGTV, and Shark Week.

How do you unwind and de-stress?

Go on vacation, haha. Either sit by the fire in winter, or on my deck in summer, with a Kahlua and milk.

What’s the best advice you can give to someone who just started a blog?

If you’re serious, don’t give up. Don’t expect to be an overnight success. Keep writing and posting, keep learning the tech stuff, and use a word processor to catch mistakes. You don’t need to be perfect, but spelling and grammar count! Let your personality show…

When did you start blogging?

I created my site in 2016, and SLOWLY started adding pages and content. As for the blog, since it wasn’t the main focus of the site it was slower going. I really only started the blogging this past January of 2019, or at least making the decision to start writing posts. I guess I started this year!

When is the last time you took a day away from work and your blog? What did you do?

I don’t work full time on my website/blog. I have a part-time job, a family, and lots to do… I’d LOVE to be to the point where I am working solely on my blog, but until then, there will be days I don’t get to work on it, and other days I can sit for hours and work! I generally try and do something website/blog related every day.

So there are my answers, thanks again to Jessi at The Rambling Raccoon for the awesome questions, that was fun!

Now, for my Nominees:

Questions for my Nominees (I really liked two of Jessi’s questions so I’m recycling!)

Where did you go on your first trip out of the country?
How did you come up with your blog name?
What are your hobbies (other than writing and your blog)?
Read the book? or, Watch the movie?
Why do you blog? (fun, money etc) Part-time or full-time?
Do you have any pets? If so, what?
Do you have social media? Share them here! Which is your favourite and which works best to drive traffic to your blog?
Do you ever book through a travel agent? Why or why not?
What is your least favourite thing about blogging?
Do you have a logo for your blog and who designed it?
What plugins do you recommend as must haves for a blog, to anyone just starting out?

A final thanks to The Rambling Raccoon for the nomination! I’m honoured that she thought of me, and hope my nominees take up the challenge! You have all inspired me in some way and I look forward to reading your answers. Keep on keeping on…